Woods Bagot’s Global Sustainability Leader Russell Fortmeyer has made his way to Australia in recent weeks to work with the practice’s architects housed within their Australian studios.

Fortmeyer has recently been pondering the subject of the transition of heat from north of the equator to the south at the end of the calendar year, and how cities respond to temperature spikes.

Extreme heat and drought has become the norm across the world, including the likes of London, New Delhi and Vancouver. Fortmeyer hopes to impart some of the knowledge he has ascertained from his travels to Woods Bagot’s Australian counterparts as part of his trip down under.

Fortmeyer believes shade is key. The difference between shaded and unshaded surfaces sits at around ten degrees celsius, even on mild days. Reflective materials mitigate the urban heat island effect, due to only holding the amount of heat required. Issues such as rain and air quality must also come into consideration for designers, according to Fortmeyer.

The Sustainability Leader cites the work of University of Southern California Professor, George Ban-Weiss as the quintessential guide to understanding the urban heat island effect. While most research was conducted in Los Angeles, the benefits of cool roofs in new buildings and retrofits can be emulated in any city and could be used to form policy.

“Some of Ban-Weiss’s other notable projects included testing theories around deploying cool pavements on the many miles of street surfaces in LA, an approach that demonstrates a reduction in urban heat island effects in both analytical models and prototypes, but in actual use could also present issues for pedestrians who may be walking on those same surfaces that are now reflecting heat upward,” Fortmeyer writes in his blog for Woods Bagot.

“That is the challenge we face as designers—balancing environmental issues with comfort, weighing each material choice against multiple criteria, and developing a reasonable and quick way to assess the microclimate implications of our design in both design and use.”

Fortmeyer says reading about the issues faced across the world in terms of extreme heat are the best way for designers to educate themselves about issues faced moving forward.

“Of all of the stories about extreme heat in cities I read this summer, the one that struck me the most was the New Yorker article about the heat wave in India, reported by a doctor who went out into the heat to see how it affected everyday lives,” he says.

“It is a tough article to read, especially sitting in an air-conditioned office in Los Angeles, but what I took away, at least as a designer, is that getting out of the office and talking to people may be our best tool in the face of unprecedented climate change.”

To read more, click here.

Architecture & Design Team

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